The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail
Transit district in California has received $2.5 million in federal funds for
preliminary engineering and environmental work on its planned commuter rail
line, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports. The funds were in the Fiscal Year
2010 Omnibus bill, which the Senate passed on Dec. 13, according to
Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.
The struggling Bay Area economy just received a big boost thanks to the BART Board, whose vote also means BART customers will finally have a swift, world-class train-to-plane connection between the Coliseum BART Station and the Oakland Airport. After two decades of planning and debate, the Board of Directors voted seven to one to award California-based Flatiron/Parsons Joint Venture the contract to design and build the 3.2-mile automated people mover. The Board also voted seven to one to award Doppelmayr Cable Car, Inc., the contract to operate and maintain the connector once built.
High-speed rail is a glamorous idea — it’s fun to imagine a train streaking through the cornfields from Chicago to St. Louis in four hours. Less glamorous are some of the fixes that need to be made to Chicago’s notoriously slow freight rail system. Talk about projects like "signalize interlocking" and "grade separation," and eyes glaze over, The Chicago Sun Times reports.
After a closed session personnel discussion amongst the Board of Directors, the Chairman of the Board of the Southern California Regional Rail Authority Keith Millhouse announced that Metrolink CEO David Solow would change his role at the agency effective December 15, 2009. The Board of Directors and Solow have agreed that he will step down as CEO and for the balance of this fiscal year, until June 30, 2010, he will remain with the agency devoting full time to the interagency collaborations necessary for Metrolink to implement safety enhancements, including Positive Train Control, and interoperability agreements.
Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said that the final Omnibus Appropriations Act that includes $126,432,544 in funding for several Illinois projects was approved by a joint House and Senate Conference Committee of which Durbin is a member. The House and Senate are expected to take up and pass the legislation before the end of the year. The bill will then go to the President for his signature.
An improvement in mid-Missouri has greatly improved Amtrak service across the state. Now, the Department of Transportation wants to go farther and faster with passenger rail service, local media report. A new 9,000-foot rail siding at California, Mo., allows Union Pacific freight trains to get out of the way of Amtrak traveling between Kansas City and Jefferson City.
The first quiet zone for Lincoln, Neb. — a six-mile stretch of railway where trains no longer have to blow horns before crossings — isn’t as quiet as it should be, some Lincolnites say, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. Trains along Cornhusker Highway were much quieter after the zone went into effect Sept. 18, but people have since told the city they’ve gotten noisy again.
The Grosvenor-Strathmore Metrorail station in the Washington, D.C., area will be closed from 10 p.m., Friday, Jan. 15, to closing, Monday, Jan. 18, while Metro undertakes a major track rehabilitation project on the Red Line between the White Flint and Medical Center Metrorail stations throughout the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday weekend. Normal service will resume on Tuesday, Jan. 19, at 5 a.m.
Work on Caltrain’s Grade Crossing Improvement Program, which will enhance safety at 25 grade crossings in San Mateo County, will continue the week of Dec. 14. Throughout the project area, at least one lane of the impacted street will remain open. Flagmen will direct traffic and pedestrians around the construction.
Thirty-nine freight rail companies and users can make upgrades and expand capacity with a $24.5-million state investment from PennDOT’s Rail Freight Capital Budget/Transportation Assistance and Rail Freight Assistance Programs, Governor Edward G. Rendell said.
The American Society of Civil Engineers named the five finalists for the 2010 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement. Established in 1960, the OCEA program recognizes projects for their contribution to the well-being of people and communities, their resourcefulness in planning and design challenges, and their innovative use of materials and techniques.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors approved light rail transit as the Locally Preferred Alternative for the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor transportation project. Also, the Board, in approving the Harbor Subdivision Transit Corridor Alternative Analysis Study, ordered further study in a Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Report of an extension of Metro Green Line rail service to the proposed Torrance Regional Transit Center in the South Bay area of the region. The light rail alternative will be 8.5 miles from the Metro Green Line Aviation Station to the Expo Line, now under construction, at Crenshaw and Exposition boulevards, with a travel time estimated at 20 minutes. There will be seven new stations plus an option for one more. The final Environment Impact Study/Environment Impact Report could be ready by the end of 2010, with the line scheduled to open in 2018.
(This editorial appeared Dec. 11 in the Miami Herald)
Leadership won the day in Tallahassee with the Dec. 8 passage of the rail-funding bill. That leadership will keep Florida in the running for $2.5 billion in federal stimulus money for a high-speed rail project and create new jobs.
A new station on the Hiawatha light-rail line in he Twin Cities is scheduled to open Dec. 12. Located on 34th Avenue just south of I-494/Hwy 5, American Boulevard Station will serve as the transportation anchor for a future transit-oriented development initiative in the City of Bloomington’s Airport South District.
Morris County, N.J., is set to seek bids, and plans to reactivate the long-dormant railroad tracks behind Horseshoe Lake in Succasunna are moving ahead full steam, local media report. In a statement issued on Dec. 1 by the county freeholders, Freeholder Director Gene Feyl said that the Federal Highway Administration has issued its authorization for the Chester Branch Rehabilitation project. The move, according to Feyl, will allow Morris County to seek bids to improve the four-mile active freight line, which passes through Roxbury.
Detroit may be one step closer to a light rail system after the U.S. House passed a provision in a bill Dec. 10 clearing a key funding hurdle for the city, the Detroit News reports. The provision means that $125 million private donors would pay for one part of the $430-million project could be counted toward the match the city has to come up with to get federal funding for a two-part rail system that would run along Woodward from downtown to Eight Mile, said U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Detroit.
"I am confident that we will be able to break ground on this project by summer," she said.
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing called the action "an important development for the future of mass transit" in the city. "This legislation would allow once and for all a true public-private partnership to be formed for light rail on Woodward Avenue," he said.
The provision, which Kilpatrick secured in a $1.1-trillion omnibus spending bill, was passed by the U.S. House by a vote 221-202.
The plan for Detroit’s light rail system would consist of two separately funded sections; one financed by private sources that would run 3.4 miles from downtown Detroit to Grand Boulevard. The second would run from Grand Boulevard to Eight Mile, with 80 percent picked up by the federal government and the remaining 20 percent locally. The cost of the project is an estimated $430 million.
Although there have been no formal announcements about who the private investors might be, the most common names heard are Penske Corp. founder Roger Penske; Peter Karmanos Jr., founder of Compuware Corp; Mike Ilitch, owner of the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings and Little Caesars Pizza; and Quicken Loans/Rock Financial founder Dan Gilbert.
The railroad crossing on South Pitt Street located between 14th and Wyatt streets in Greenville, N.C., will permanently to facilitate the construction of the new rail connecting track, The Greenville Daily Reflector reports. This section of Pitt Street will no longer be a through street. Area residents and services will be able to use Beatty and Evans streets to access Howell and 14th streets.
The Association of American Railroads today released the 2009 edition of Railroad Facts – the premier industry reference book. Railroad Facts contains more than 80 pages of facts and statistics for 2008, as well as historical data on critical aspects of railroad business, including: finance, operations, plant and equipment, employment and compensation, fuel consumption and costs. Railroad Facts contains a profile of each Class I railroad, Amtrak, the two major Canadian railroads and the two largest Mexican railways.
Copies of the publication are available for non-AAR members for $20.00 for one copy; $17.00 per copy for two to ten copies; and $15.00 per copy for orders over 10 copies. The cost for AAR members is $5.00 per copy. To order copies of the book, visit the AAR web site at www.aar.org and go to Resources – Publications – Online catalog.
NJ TRANSIT BOARD ADVANCES PORTAL BRIDGE REPLACEMENT PROJECT
Final engineering and design work will begin on a pair of
new bridges over the Hackensack River that will increase capacity, flexibility
and reliability for rail customers traveling into and out of New York.
Under a contract amendment approved today by the NJ TRANSIT
Board of Directors, the corporation is advancing toward construction of the Portal
Bridge Capacity Enhancement project, a crucial link between Kearny and Secaucus
on the Northeast Corridor that will replace the 99-year-old Portal Bridge.
The board also authorized a contract for construction management
services.
"This project will provide an essential upgrade to our core
capacity and positions NJ TRANSIT to efficiently accommodate growing ridership
for decades to come," said NJ TRANSIT Chairman and Transportation Commissioner
Stephen Dilts.
The new bridges will offer five tracks – three more than the
current bridge – providing the capacity to take full advantage of the
additional capacity into and out of New York that the Mass Transit Tunnel
project will create. The complementary bridge and tunnel projects will
eliminate two bottlenecks for NJ TRANSIT and Amtrak customers.
In addition, the new fixed bridges will provide greater
reliability by eliminating the need for a movable span. The new bridges
will be built high enough above the river – 50 feet above mean high water – to allow
ships to pass underneath with none of the bridge opening and closing operations
that create delays for rail customers.
"The current bridge is functionally obsolete and expensive
to maintain," said NJ TRANSIT Executive Director Richard Sarles. "This
project will eliminate a chokepoint for hundreds of trains and thousands of
customers each day."
About 350 NJ TRANSIT trains operate across Portal Bridge
each day, carrying about 150,000 customers. Another 30,000 Amtrak
customers cross the bridge each day. Amtrak owns the bridge and is
working jointly with NJ TRANSIT on the replacement project.
The Board authorized a $69.7 million amendment to an
existing contract with Portal Partners Inc. of Audubon, Pa. for final
engineering and design and an $18 million contract to AECOM-STV Joint Venture
for construction management consultant services.
A contract with Portal Partners Inc. for final engineering
for early action components was approved by the Board in July, 2009.
Construction of early action items, such as utility
relocation, is expected to start by mid 2010, with some heavy project
construction including access roads, platforms and piers to start in the
fall.
The entire project, estimated to cost about $1.7 billion, is
expected to be completed in 2017. A combination of state and federal
sources is expected to provide funding.
FIRST TUNNELING CONTRACT AWARDED FOR MASS TRANSIT TUNNEL
PROJECT
The NJ TRANSIT Board of Directors today approved the first
major tunneling contract for the $8.7 billion Mass Transit Tunnel, the nation’s
largest public transit project that will double commuter rail capacity between
New Jersey and New York.
The board authorized the award of a $583 million contract to
a joint venture of Barnard of New Jersey and Judlau Contracting Inc. of College
Point, N.Y., the lowest of three bidders. The contract covers
construction of one of the project’s three tunnel segments, a mile-long segment
in Manhattan.
"By improving this critical transportation corridor, we are
ensuring that our tunnels remain a source of economic strength and mobility for
New Jersey and the region," said Governor Jon S. Corzine. "This contract
will provide an immediate boost to our economy with the Manhattan and Palisades
tunnel segments expected to generate approximately 1,000 jobs and the Mass
Transit Tunnel project as a whole creating many more jobs over the next several
years."
NJ TRANSIT expects to receive bids for the Palisades tunnel
segment within weeks, followed by the third and final Hudson River
segment.
The Manhattan tunnel segment is part of an overall project
to build two new single-track commuter rail tunnels under the Hudson River,
doubling capacity of the two-track tunnel that was built 100 years ago, which
today operates at its functional capacity. The other main feature of the
project is construction of an expanded New York Penn Station specially designed
to handle the customer surges associated with a commuter railroad.
"This project positions NJ TRANSIT to respond effectively to
the demands of New Jersey residents for 21st-century transportation options
that decrease our reliance on fossil fuel while improving the environment,"
said Transportation Commissioner and NJ TRANSIT Chairman Stephen Dilts.
The project is being built by NJ TRANSIT in partnership with
the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.
"This is a major project that helps ensure we have the
capacity to meet the growing demand for public transportation," said NJ TRANSIT
Executive Director Richard Sarles. "It benefits residents throughout New
Jersey by creating operational flexibility system-wide, as well as
opportunities for convenient, one-seat rides to and from New York for customers
on ten of our 12 commuter rail lines."
The additional commuter rail capacity provided by the new
tunnel will remove an estimated 22,000 vehicles from regional roadways each
day.
The project is expected to generate and sustain 6,000 jobs
annually in peak construction years and create 44,000 permanent jobs after
completion.
Contract Details
The Manhattan tunnels segment will be constructed under a
design-build contract that includes final design and construction of rail
tunnels that will extend a distance of approximately one mile from a shaft at
Twelfth Avenue and 28th Street in Manhattan.
Construction will begin early next year, and is expected to
continue through late 2013.
The contractor will construct a 160-foot diameter access
shaft on the western edge of Manhattan, and then bore 16,500 feet of tunnels
averaging more than 120 feet beneath the surface to a new expansion of Penn
Station under 34th Street between Eighth and Sixth avenues.
The twin tunnels will be located an average of 120 feet below
street level and will proceed diagonally northeast then eastward and split into
four tunnels to maximize train movements in and out of the expanded New York
Penn Station as the tunnels approach 34th Street.
The contractor will perform the excavation using two tunnel
boring machines (TBM’s), massive equipment units that cut through rock and
other material to form tunnels that are each about 27 feet in diameter. The
total length of the TBM-bored tunnels included in this contract segment is
16,500 feet.
The Mass Transit Tunnel will double service capacity to 48
trains per hour during peak periods from the current 23 trains. Twice as
many passengers will be able to be accommodated, from 46,000 each morning peak
period now to 90,000 in the future. The project also will also create
transfer-free, one-seat rides for travelers on 10 of NJ TRANSIT’s 12 rail
lines.
The Port Authority is contributing $3 billion toward the
Mass Transit Tunnel project cost, while the federal government will contribute
$3 billion under its "New Starts" transit funding program. Another $2.7
billion will come from a combination of other federal funds, including stimulus
and clean air funding, as well as the New Jersey Turnpike Authority’s congestion
mitigation contribution.
NJ TRANSIT BOARD ADVANCES SOUTH JERSEY TRANSPORTATION
PROJECTS
The NJ TRANSIT Board of Directors today advanced several key
South Jersey transportation initiatives, including a study to evaluate
improvements to the Atlantic City Rail Line and an agreement with the Delaware
River Port Authority (DRPA) that will provide funding for a study of the
proposed extension of light rail to Glassboro.
In addition, NJ TRANSIT is taking the lead on a
Gloucester-Camden-area Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) study to examine the congested
corridor southeast of Camden along routes 55, 42 and 676. The agency is
also partnering with the DRPA for the design and construction of a new NJ
TRANSIT bus loading area across from the Walter Rand Transportation Center.
"Today’s Board actions advance transit initiatives involving
all three NJ TRANSIT travel modes in southern New Jersey," said NJ TRANSIT
Executive Director Richard Sarles. "We are pleased to work with the
Delaware River Port Authority to improve access to public transportation in
this region."
Atlantic City Rail Line Operations Analysis Study
The Board authorized a $735,000 contract with LTK
Engineering Services of New York, NY, for a study to identify Atlantic City
Rail Line infrastructure improvements to accommodate potential service
expansions in the future.
Today, the Atlantic City Rail Line is primarily a
single-track railroad with a limited number of passing tracks. The study
will look at the impact to the line and infrastructure needs resulting from
increased service frequency, faster trip times and additional stations.
Among the items to be evaluated are the projected ridership
impact of the opening of the Pennsauken Transit Center and proposals for new
stations in Woodcrest and at the Atlantic City Airport.
Camden-Glassboro Light Rail Agreement
Another item advanced by the Board today will provide for
the funding of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a proposed light
rail system between Camden and Glassboro. The Board authorized an
agreement with the DRPA, by which NJ TRANSIT will fund up to $8,954,000 for the
preparation of the EIS.
In May 2009, the DRPA recommended that diesel light rail
service be advanced from Camden to Glassboro within the existing Conrail
right-of-way. The light rail system would serve 13 new stations between
the Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden and downtown Glassboro.
Gloucester-Camden Bus Rapid Transit
Today the Board also authorized a $750,000 contract with
AECOM USA, Inc. of Newark, NJ, for a study to evaluate bus service improvements
along the congested Route 55/42/676 highway corridor that connects suburban
Gloucester and Camden counties with the City of Camden and Philadelphia.
The study will identify and evaluate a range of capital and
operating bus improvement options, including BRT, to improve the quality and
reliability of bus service in an area that is subject to significant traffic
congestion and delays during peak periods. BRT relies on a combination of
strategies to improve service, including the use of dedicated bus lanes and
traffic signal prioritization technology.
This study and the Atlantic City Rail Line Operations
Analysis study are part of a broader evaluation of transportation improvements
advanced by the DRPA in 2008.
Walter Rand Transportation Center Bus Loading Area
Under a second agreement with the DRPA authorized by the
Board, the DRPA will fund $3 million for the design and construction of a loading
area for NJ TRANSIT buses at the Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden.
As part of the project, NJ TRANSIT will design and construct
a new bus loading area with a canopy, lighting, closed-circuit cameras, public
address system and signage. The project also includes repaving and
streetscape improvements on Broadway and the adjacent plaza areas.
The project will enhance pedestrian convenience and safety,
improve bus circulation and allow for more efficient boarding and alighting of
buses. It will also improve connectivity for customers transferring
between buses, the River Line and the PATCO High-Speed Line operated by the
DRPA.
Acting swiftly to address
the issues raised in David D’Allesandro’s review of the MBTA, the Authority executed
a contract with one of the transit industry’s most respected safety and
security consulting firms. Transportation Resource Associates (TRA) will perform
an independent assessment of the MBTA’s evaluation and prioritization of
capital projects, with a focus on safety issues. Philadelphia-based TRA has
been providing expertise and solutions to transit agencies throughout North
America for nearly 20 years.
